Letter to Brother

From Epistles – Third Series of Volume 7 of The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Translated from Bengali) 54 W. 33 NEW YORK, 25th April, 1895. DEAR BROTHER (To Dr. I. Janes.), I was away in the Catskill mountains and it was almost impossible to get a letter...

Letter to Adhyapakji -VII

From Epistles – Third Series of Volume 7 of The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Translated from Bengali) 541 DEARBORN AVE., CHICAGO, 24th May, 1894. DEAR ADHYAPAKJI (Prof. John Henry Wright), Herewith I forward to you a letter from one of our ruling princes...

The Destiny Of Man

From The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 7- Chapter 4 – Notes Of Class Talks and Lectures (Delivered in Memphis on January 17, 1894: Reported in Appeal-Avalanche) The audience was moderately large, and was made up of the best literary and musical...

Practical Religion: Breathing and Meditation

The Yoga doctrine, which we are having our lecture on, is not from that standpoint. [It teaches that] there is the soul, and inside this soul is all power. It is already there, and if we can master this body, all the power will be unfolded. All knowledge is in the soul. Why are people struggling? To lessen the misery…. All unhappiness is caused by our not having mastery over the body…. We are all putting the cart before the horse…. Take the system of work, for instance. We are trying to do good by … comforting the poor. We do not get to the cause which created the misery. It is like taking a bucket to empty out the ocean, and more [water] comes all the time. The Yogi sees that this is nonsense. [He says that] the way out of misery is to know the cause of misery first…. We try to do the good we can. What for? If there is an incurable disease, why should we struggle and take care of ourselves? If the utilitarians say: “Do not bother about soul and God!” what is that to the Yogi and what is it to the world? The world does not derive any good [from such an attitude]. More and more misery is going on all the time….

“The Science of Breathing”

The mind ought to control every bit of Prana that has been worked up in the body…. [The] mind should have entire control of the body. That is not [the case] with all. With most of us it is the other way. The mind should be able to control every part of [the body] just at will. That is reason, philosophy; but [when] we come to matters of fact, it is not so. For you, on the other hand, the cart is before the horse. It is the body mastering the mind. If my finger gets pinched, I become sorry. The body works upon the mind. If anything happens which I do not like to happen, I am worried; my mind [is] thrown off its balance. The body is master of the mind. We have become bodies. We are nothing else but bodies just now.